Hugues Moussy: A life in the global educational sector

Hugues Moussy had worked for two decades in the international development and education sector when he decided it was time to utilise his diverse skill-set in his own backyard and be part of the European Union (EU) project.  

“I had worked at the national level for France, in Africa, and with the World Bank and the United Nations, so in the international system, but not in Europe. I thought it would be interesting as the EU is the top global donor in education, and has other ways of doing things than the World Bank and others,” he says. 

The European Training Foundation (ETF) was a particularly good fit within the EU’s educational ecosystem. 

“It has a very specific segment of the educational landscape, which is employability – skills produced by an education system and how they can be useful for employability. It is very important, but I had never specifically worked on the issue. It is at the very end of the educational process, and I wanted to focus on it, as I find it a concrete and pragmatic sector to work on,” Moussy says.    

Geographic awareness 

Moussy has listed two driving reasons for joining the ETF. One, he was interested in the geographic area that the ETF covers – the EU neighbourhood, and particularly the Balkans – after spending so much time in Sub-Saharan Africa, Central Asia and the Middle East. Secondly, he wanted to apply his educational insight into more middle-income countries after working in less developed economies. 

In 2021, Moussy became the head of the ETF's Systems Performance and Assessment Unit, later renamed the Intelligence Unit. 

 “We mostly gather quantitative and qualitative data on countries, both to better understand the background of the country in terms of the education and labour markets, but also to understand the education system and different labour market policies,” he says. 

Joining amidst the Covid pandemic crisis was not an ideal time, meaning Moussy was unable to physically meet his team for quite some time, as well as take more time to settle into his new home town of Turin, but his cosmopolitan experience and travel record eased the transition. 

From academic to education specialist 

In his early career, Moussy had intended to be an academic, researching and teaching the history of science and education, which he did at universities in the USA and France. He then switched career paths, and spent 20 years in the world of international aid development and cooperation. This was initially with the French state in Cameroon, working on the Education for All movement and advancing the UN’s Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which later morphed into the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).  

After five years in Cameroon, and a stint back in France, Moussy worked for the World Bank in Washington DC, on the Education for All - Fast Track Initiative (later rebranded as the Global Partnership for Education) and the MDGs. This also involved six years as a senior education specialist working with countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, Central Asia and the Middle East.

“I was supporting countries to develop a five to ten-year roadmap for education, to access grants from the Global Partnership for Education, and to collaborate with different partners,” he recalls.  

Moussy then returned to his native France, to work at the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), heading a research team at the International Institute for Educational Planning. Research involved the use of international large scale assessment data in Sub-Saharan Africa.  

“This allowed us to see where students are, mostly through primary education assessment, and how to base policies on the results,” he says. 

One topic he found particularly intriguing as it is not discussed much was corruption in education. 

“We don’t speak that much about it, but it can happen in any country,” he adds. 

The ETF’s Intelligence Unit 

Moussy leveraged his burgeoning expertise on data gathering and analysis to his new role at the ETF. As head of the Intelligence Unit, the aim is to gather relevant and appropriate data to put together the best evidence to support policy making. This involves the regular gathering of data on educational systems, vocational education and training, labour markets and policies. 

“We need to make sure we have the right data, so that we analyse it, put it into different pipelines, and have knowledge cross-checked. It is about using data to engage in a discussion on what can be done,” Moussy says. 

Visualise the data  

Moussy cannot emphasise enough the importance of data to the ETF as an evidence-based organisation. While considerable work is underway to improve data collection and databases, strengthen ties to national statistical offices, and utilise new tools such as AI for data analytics, the end of the process is also key. This involves visualising data for maximum impact.  

Moussy has initiated an online platform with a view to providing public access to ETF data so it can be downloaded and used, but also visualised as infographics. 

“I want to systematise our data so it is easier to use, especially as we are in an increasingly visual world. Behind the visuals there is a lot of analytics, but a lot of understanding comes through visuals, and you need to attract people’s attention. This is very key to me,” he says. 

Geopolitics of education 

Moussy’s international experience has become a core part of his thinking and approach to education. In 2016, he penned a paper –The Case for a Geopolitics of Education: Educational Rivalries on the International Stage – that examined how education stands at the heart of globalisation today, and the need to guarantee access to education to better prepare us all for the challenges facing education now and in the future.  

Moussy has brought this global outlook into what the ETF is doing as an institution. 

“We are not just an institution of experts working in 28 countries on vocational education. What we do, in whichever geography or sector – such as skills for employability – is part of a global picture of education. We cannot just understand countries compared with the EU, and have a Eurocentric vision. It needs to be a global vision, including the challenges we have, as the ETF is part of the global education landscape. This enables the dialogue we have between the EU and its neighbourhood,” he concludes.